Info for
Commercialisation Teams
We support Commercialisation Teams to turn research into a sustainable enterprise that focuses on maximising impact.
Who is SISO for?
The intellectual property and/or commercialisation teams within Scotland’s universities aim to support academic staff and researchers to successfully exploit intellectual property through licensing and spin-out company formation.
These teams normally provide a range of support from initial disclosure through to opportunity evaluation, IP protection, securing incubation funding, customer engagement, marketing, business planning, and negotiation of commercial agreement terms, all designed to ensure the individual or teams receive the best support and advice for their innovation to become a commercial success.
For some academics however, the language of commercialisation is daunting – profit, investment, equity, Venture Capital, words which some find can jar with the reason why they initially started out on their research journey…to make a difference…to have a positive impact on society. For these reasons, they feel that the traditional university commercialisation process is not for them and their entrepreneurship journey does not begin.
Collaborators
SISO - A Commercialisation Runway for Social Impact
SISO is designed to support academic staff and researchers to explore commercialisation of their research through the social enterprise model. In doing this, SISO works very closely with the commercialisation teams of each university, offering a parallel pathway of support tailored to the needs of both the individual as well as those of the university.
Social enterprise is a business model that puts people and planet first, offering a balanced approach to commercialisation. Social enterprises are trading businesses, selling goods and services, employing staff, and doing it within a profitable and sustainable financial model. However, the primary purpose of the social enterprise is the maximisation of its social or environmental impact.
A key characteristic of social enterprises in Scotland is the ‘asset lock’, ensuring that all profits and assets remain within the enterprise to maximise the social impact, instead of being distributed for the financial gain of investors. This means it is not relevant to all commercialisation opportunities but is to some.
We take the time to work with the university commercialisation teams to understand the opportunity and to explore social enterprise as a potential business model for the spin-out or start-up.
Who is SISO for?
For the university commercialisation teams, SISO offers a range of benefits:
- SISO helps to broaden the university entrepreneurial pool, creating entrepreneurs that would not have been created through the traditional process. We know this for sure as the academic staff and researchers that we work with clearly tell us this.
- SISO helps to diversify the university entrepreneurial pool by attracting more women to become entrepreneurs. 57% of the enquiries to SISO in the four years between 2020 and 2024 have been from women or women led teams and 75% of start-ups and spin-outs formed have been from women or women led teams. This contrasts with the research findings by Oxford Brookes University published in November 2019 which showed that over a 20-year period, only 13% of spin out companies were founded by women or had a mixed gender founding team (Source: The spinout journey from a gender perspective – UKRI).
- SISO is a funded programme, adding specialist expertise and capacity at no direct cost to the university. We bring specialist knowledge and expertise to the table on social enterprise, legal, IP, funding and internationalisation, adding to the range of resources and support from within the university. We match our funding to that offered by the university through its commercialisation pathway, meaning commercialisation teams can access capacity and expertise without any impact to your existing budget.
- SISO provides access to Scotland’s world-leading social enterprise ecosystem of support, support not available to non-social enterprise business models, This includes:
- Direct access to the Just Enterprise national support programme for social enterprises, providing additional fully-funded, specialist business support including financial planning, business planning, and leadership development;
- Direct access to the International Social Enterprise Observatory (ISEO), providing support to social enterprise start-ups and spin-outs from Scotland’s universities to maximise the international potential and impact of their research by linking them to the eight specialist delivery partners including Scottish Development International, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise;
- Referral on to social enterprise start-up and growth stage grant funding up to £45,000 from Scotland’s social enterprise start-up agency, Firstport;
- Referral on to The Ventures Lab, which provides access to best-in-market patient capital of up to £100,000;
- Access to further social finance options of >£1million from social finance lenders designed to help social enterprises to scale up.
- SISO aligns with and directly supports the aims set out within The Entrepreneurial Campus strategy, providing a cross-institutional launchpad with wraparound support to help create spin-outs that will bring about direct socioeconomic impact. SISO provides a direct interface with external ecosystem partners; supports the adjustment of institutional policies to incorporate social enterprise; and aligns funding to maximise impact.
FAQs
How is SISO funded?
SISO is supported by the Scottish Government in order to increase the number of academic start-ups and spin-outs with social impact. There is no direct cost to the university in engaging with SISO. SISO adds value to your offer, matching our funding to that offered by the university through your commercialisation pathway.
The university has clear policies in place that guides commercialisation. I am not sure how the social enterprise model would fit with those.
We understand that and are experienced in having those dialogues. We have worked with universities to consider existing commercialisation policy and process and to understand how social enterprise can be incorporated within them. This has led to successful changes in long-standing university policy as the university has been able to see the benefits that this brings, both to the institution and the academics.
Many of our spin-outs have significant levels of IP. I assume that SISO only supports those opportunities that are IP ‘light’, perhaps from Arts and Humanities for instance?
No, SISO is currently working with commercialisation teams and academics across all colleges and schools, including medicine, science & engineering and arts, humanities & social sciences. This includes research where there is no IP and also where there are significant levels of IP involved. The social enterprise business model and legal structures can be designed to accommodate the levels of IP involved, the levels of finance required, the needs of the university and the desires of the academic. We are experienced in doing this and have specialist legal advice that we use to help navigate our way towards the best solution to meet all needs.
This all seems a bit new and different. I would really like to read some examples of how SISO has worked with other universities to commercialise research using the social enterprise model. Are there any?
Yes, there are. Although SISO has only been working for a short number of years, and the model is completely new to university teams, we have supported the first social enterprise spin-outs from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde and are actively working with dozens of others at different stages of the commercialisation process. Click here to read some case studies of those that have already taken this journey.
